Daren Wake's Story

Daren Wake He nodded, copying her signal code and saving it in his suit to instantly recognize her. "Sounds good..." He looked back to motoko, awaiting for her answer.

Daren Wake "Hmmmm...." He watched the woman closely.

Daren Wake He frowned under his helmet, he had a bad habit of being a pessimist. "If it's worth it..."

Daren Wake He chuckled, and nodded. "Soudns good... Want a drink Samus?"

Daren Wake He heard a ping, and cursed seeing a screen pop up. "Ah! Hey Samus, I gotta go... One of my contracts just showed up. Maybe i can take you to a dinner, after eh?" He chuckled, and nodded ordering her a drink then sped out of the bar. He laid soem credits on the dirnk paying for Samus's drink.

"All systems checked, armor is at full power. Tac-com are you getting green?" Daren tapped the side of his helmet out of habit. Himself along with 39 other mercenaries were aboard a speeding aircraft heading towards Omnicorp HQ. Omnicorp had contracted a short notice emergency defense detail with Stames Defense Corporation given the unique field of mercenaries and equipment they had readily available.

Their armored aircraft banked hard right and dove between a column of buildings after seeing a column of aircraft zoom by. The lights inside the cabin started to flash red signalling that it was almost time for them to drop. The armored men all gathered their gear and stood up readying themselves for what was about to happen. Over the comms in their helmets came the distinctive voice of their CEO, Vikkus Aleene. "Gentleme,n you have a contract to fill.. You're to supplement the Omnicorp defenses until they can evacuate their crew and equipment. But I'd like to remind you of your prerogative. You work for Stames first! If you see an opportunity, take it. We know Omnicorp has several prototypes and secrets we'd like to get our hands on. Stames will benefit with anything we can take from this company. You'll get a bonus if you find anything good." The quickness of the drafting left a god number of loopholes which left 'protection and security' open for translation. This sided in Stames' favor.

Immediately after the communication channel closed, their craft landed and opened up the side bays. The scene before them were numerous armed security guards rushing to fortify their positions while employees from all over rushed to secure their work or themselves. Daren jogged forward meeting a man wearing a helmet with a thick yellow stripe signifying he was a security leader for the company. "We're here on contract, Stames Defense. Where do you need us?" Daren wasn't sure what was waiting for him, but it obviously was something big and bad given the amount of troops and hardware that was over Wing City. Their ship took off in a hurry leaving them stranded at the HQ, given the presence of those aircraft it was probably for the best. Their ride could come back later when ex-filtration was more suitable. Daren and several of the mercenaries moved into different positions in the main courtyard to the complex, while others moved to different locations to secure a solid perimeter. They would have to wait until the enemy arrived and then see if their advanced weapons could do anything or not. Omnicorp was scared for a reason.

Outside the facility the troops were spreading out. Several placed their shields down upon the ground in scattered formation, whereupon the shields would shift and change to create a hard barrier to provide cover. The shields, made of starsteel and forged with enchantments of every defensive nature known by Istalri Nianya, were indestructible. No weapon short of a capital ships bombardment would dislodge them, and then only because the ground upon which it was rooted would be turned to dust.

In total a number of five hundred warriors arrayed against the facility, fourty of which had surrounded the facility with their shield emplacements. Twenty five of those warriors were the mighty fyrnskain, great warriors armored in solid plate of the thickest available to infantry, wielding great and terrible axes or hammers. These stood in the open, but any weapons fire upon them would only rebound upon an invisible wall thanks to the wards imbued into their armor. In addition several archers were seen among the warriors, though these seemed content to wait at a safe distance until the whatever purpose they were present for arose.

But despite all these many forces arrayed against the Omnicorp building, the largest and by far the most significant threat was the hulking starsteel Golem that stood as stone awaiting orders. The behometh was over twelve meters tall and made of pure starsteel into which many runic sigils and magic constructs had been inscribed. The Siege Weapon of Istalri Nianya, the Golem could take overwhelming amounts of punishment with impunity. The unique properties of Starsteel meant that unparalled amounts of energy could be absorbed by the Golem without any effect whatsoever, and like a beast of living steel it's strength would be unequaled on the battlefield. When the battle began, it was without any doubt that the Golem would be the largest threat faced.

"Well then... They seem organized. Bunch of mercs facing a whole fucking armada. I'd be surprised if we're not surrounded already." Daren scanned around him as the last of the security personnel were getting into position. Sentry bots were all stood up, full shelter in place or evacuation procedures were being followed but the army was already here. He was far from a damned hero and was only here for the money. Just like the other 39 soldiers that were just dropped in mere moments ago. All A.K.A.A suited with weapons designed to penetrate even the most stalwart of armor. It seemed like a cinch, 7 foot tall targets wrapped in shiny armor stacked in a neat little row. Child's play. Or so he thought.

To his right it seemed that the security chief for the front was receiving a message, his head was tucked low in case he had received any fire during the transmission. "The evacuation is almost halfway through! We have to hold them for 30 more minutes to secure everything." "Izit? So we're here today just now then ya?" He was given a look that could only be construed as confused given his South African slang. "Fuck it all, just tell me what to shoot." Daren was getting annoyed with the whole situation. Sighting himself in, he spied the warriors and siege machines standing at least a few hundred meters away. "Wait! Just-just hold for now.... They seem to be waiting for something." Daren glanced up and around seeing how relatively open the space was in this part of the business district. Omnicorp had paid well to purchase this land and make it an ideal spot for their headquarters.

"Well I'd rather not the first move be getting a spear in the face. You know what they say, if you're going to fight a group. You fuck up the biggest bastard they got." The security chief nodded reluctantly, looking towards the massive The Golem. "Then we'll go off of you!" Daren raised his weapon, a blue laser automatically flicked on using it as a range finder. He clocked in his target and squeezed the trigger letting his rail-gun charge to deliver a devastating blow at mach 5. The weapon system had an intelligent trigger locking onto the upper chest of the creature just below the neck, the type of devastation this would deliver would be truly crippling to any normal piece of armored steel. With an incredibly thunderous crack the gun went off, 20mm's of super heated titanium and tungsten jettisoned towards the behemoth and crashed directly on target in a show of spark, sound and shrapnel. Daren scowled immediately knowing that something wasn't right. He was familiar with the weapon, the sound it made during penetration was severely distinct and this noise- though loud was nothing like it. His rounds only stopped when they ran out of energy, they were never outright blocked or exploded. Magic was the last thing he had considered competing against. When the smoke of vaporized steel cleared the beast was still standing. "Well.... Shit whatever the fuck that thing is made of, it's eatin what I'm servin."

Having initiated the battle with a lackluster start, the rattled security chief shouted his command to fire and the volleys of fire began. From standard bullets, to rockets fired from multi-legged rocket 'spider' drones bombarded the surrounding force. Mostly trying to shoot around the shields being presented to them. Daren held his fire, deciding to think more rather than shoot. He was a physics major, he knew there was a way around this. In the mean time his armor self adjusted thickening the armor to his front in case any ballistics were to return back on them.

The Golem took the weapons fire without so much as budging from its position, while the Fyrnskain smartly prompted to gather behind cover as the final arrangements were made. The Fyrnskain were the ones shouting orders to the troops around them, but when it was all done, the Warriors had gathered into large blocks of groups and had, with their shields interlocked and facing the facility, begun marching towards the OmniCorp HQ. The shields, like the Golems, were forged of starsteel enchanted with wards of many defensive arrangements. A meteor could slam into the shield and the shield would be entirely uneffected, though the same could not be said of the warrior who carried it. These Warriors marched towards the Omnicorp Facility without pause, eighty of them had remained behind, two behind every barrier. One of those two would kneel down and cast a spell which surrounded them with brightly violet glowing runes, the other would take their spear and throw it with sure aim ahead of the marching forces and into the Omnicorp facility.

As these spears flew through the air their hafts ignited and drove the blades further forward like rockets. As they did the surface of the blade would become white hot as the metal shifted into a plasma state, making it hot enough to melt through all but the strongest of materials. Finally, whenever the spear had landed, it would explode, driving molten shrapnel in a thirty foot area around it. Everything close to the blast was killed instantly, everything else in range suffered nasty injuries.

When their troops had gotten halfway to the building, the Fyrnskain began charging forward, each one howling a battle cry as they crashed through enemy fortifications and began swinging their great axes in wide arcs, each swing to spread devastation and death. As though that was the que they awaited, the Golem would come to life, striding over the barriers towards the facility, each step sounding like the ring of the bell of doom.

On the roof of the Omnicorp building something was beginning to unfold. The rapid response signal that Tech Con sent out was recieved and read loud and clear by those on the other end.

Clouds began to angrily swirl above the Omnicorp roof, with the proverbial eye of the storm centered directly on the roof itself. There was a thunderclap, which echoed throughout the chaos of the city as the clouds began to swirl more vigorously and angrily around the building. The winds began to pick up, followed by multicolored flashes of light around the swirling maw above the towering skyscraper.


A few moments went by and there was a deafening thunderclap from above, a swirling vortex of light and dust swirled down onto the rooftop with a 'thud' followed by another brutal clap of thunder.

The swirling vortex angrily danced upon the rooftop helipad of Omnicorp HQ, and there was another crack of multicolored light.

A single Aschen marine emerged with his weapon at the ready. Moving quickly from the vortex he took cover behind an a/c unit, facing the roof access door in front of him. There was another crack of thunder, and another, and another as Aschen soldiers began to emerge from the vortex one, by one.

The second soldier readied his disruptor rifle with an audible whine, before he took cover behind some ventilation ductwork facing the burning city below him. Another soldier emerged, and another as they took positions on the rooftop, weapons readied and charged.

A pair of Aschen soldiers moved towards the rooftop access door, one of them blasting the doorknob with his disruptor rifle, and pulling the door open, while three more Aschen soldiers moved to the stairwell.

The vortex remained, as ten more men emerged, weapons readied they advanced towards the rooftop doorway.

The lead man engaged his rifle mounted flashlight, and peered down the stairwell. "Clear!" He called out. They were high up and away from most of the fighting, and so they prepared their position.

"We need to clear an LZ for the Rev when it arrives, secure the city block. Admiral Hanley wants this to be a smooth and clean op! Move move move!" A Sergeant barked as two soldiers rushed past and into the doorway.

"Get radio jamming up corporal! Alpha and Beta teams will move into the building and secure the upper floors so we can get the nodes up. The sergeant called out as he turned to the churning vortex behind him, shuddering as another deafening clap of thunder heralded the arrival of another squad of Aschen marines, several of which were carrying supply crates and setting them up behind deployable covers.

With the teams in position, the Sergeant looked to the Vortex as it dissipated, and receded back into the sky, leaving a cloud of dust in it's wake.

"Secure the LZ and move into the building, go, go!" He called out.

"This is right fucked..." Daren watched the wall of troops marching towards them, gun fire erupting all around. His HUD collecting data on everything he saw. The South African mercenary thought long and hard, when microseconds and millimeters counted. He saw the effects that conventional rounds had on the shields which was nothing. By chance a rocket fired from a drone ricocheted off the top of a shield and exploded above the wall of warriors. If there was an opportunity to penetrate the line and get some shots he'd take it. But his defensive Trophy system kicked in, blasting three volleys of explosive interfering charges at an incoming spear which changed it's trajectory up and sailed passed him. The magic imbued device implanted into the ground and exploded showing plasma all around.

His armor reacted immediately buffering up his back now from the explosion. Staying here would mean certain death and Daren was not a fan about the thought of dying. "All Stames Def op-o's. This whole things is fucked, walk it back and secure the facility inside. We don't have the tech or manpower for this." Daren turned to dash behind an advancing security drone blasting away with heavy armor-piercing rounds. The security guards and mercs now were in a full retreat going inside of the Omnicorp building. "30 minutes you said? You should tell your people they have 5 mate." Just as the security chief tried to transmit he froze hearing nothing but static in his comms. "I can't get through." Daren checked his comms to find the same thing. "It would appear that our communications are being jammed... Tracking the source..... I'm receiving a signal interference wave coming from the top of the OmniCorp building, the make of the signal is foreign to me. Processing-.." "Yuh keep doin that, let me avoid that fuckin walking mountain; ya?" Daren turned and ran back to the OmniCorp building, automatically meeting several of his comrades. Already a few had been cut down either by the Golem or the Fyrnskain leading the charge.

"So much for this ya? We're gonna rally up and find our way out of this mess. As we go along, if you see anything useful- snatch it!" Just then the Security chief ran by, seeing the hired mercenaries just standing there talking. "We're not paying you to shoot the shit! We're paying you to shoot those freaks! Now get your men together and help me evacuate this facility." "Whatever you say." Daren nodded and took one last look outside from the main foyer as the armored drones were being cut down or destroyed as well as the unfortunate souls who happened to be caught by the warriors. Including several of his own men.

"Current battle statics show an 23% mortality rate of Stames Defense operatives. For a mission to have this many casualties so quickly is unfavorable, recommend discontinuing the mission and re-prioritize to mitigating Stames Defense Corp profit loss." "As always Julius, you're a ray of sunshine. But we press." "Understood... Forwarding statistics to Stames CEO." The A.I. responded and returned to it's back ground functions. Daren was completely unaware of the new possible threat entering from the roof 57 stories above coming down.

As the security continued to retreat, the Warriors pressed their advantage. Those who had been throwing spears quickly found those self same items returned to them by the warriors who had created the violet ring of runes around themselves. The magic had reclaimed the sacrificed weapons from the ether. Once they had requipped, the barrier shields were pulled up, and those soldiers likewise moved forward on the facility.

The Fyrnskain continued to cut down those enemies within range, each captain leading a contingent of their own warriors, when two dozen Paladins flew in from the Business District. These reinforcements did not engage enemies directly, instead they hovered above the warriors and healed them using streams of energy generated from the staves they carried.

The Golem continued it's approach to the building in a singleminded function. It would continue marching until it had reached the doors to the facility, and then it would proceed to try and break those doors down. With all considered, it should be short work.

One of the sharp eyed archers happened to be looking at the sky in contemplation when the Aschen soldiers warped in. He didn't know what it was, but the storm that had appeared over the building worried him. He pointed it out to his captain, who also eyed the anomaly. The captain then spoke in the musical language that their people used, and sent the one who had spotted it back to Ayanna in the Business district to report. He sent another Archer along with him for assurance. When those two had left, he turned back to look at the storm. For reasons he couldn't identify, a sickening feeling had formed in his gut.

Several Aschen soldiers checked the door to the CEO's office, while another group looked for the fire escape, six marines moved towards the rooftop fire escape, forcing open the door and approaching the stairwell. One of them peered his light down into the black maw, before he nodded.

"Service elevator." A Corporal signalled, gesturing to the service elevator that ran up and down the building.

Five marines nodded in response, before they formed up on the elevator shaft, hooking rappeling lines to a secure bar near the door.

"Check.." One said, checking his equipment, and letting his rifle hang from a velcro strap secured to his armored vest.

"Subspace comms check." The Radioman said, uplinking his ruggedized tactical computron to the Aschen battlenet, bouncing signals off of several subspace relays and to the Datalink, while pulling up a three-dimensional hologram of the HQ.

In the distance a Marine sergeant called out.

"Through the gates of hades!"

Several other men joined in, shouting. "As we make our way to Elysium!"

And they all shouted. "Through the Xeno Lines! Primo Victoria!"

With their gear secured, their weapons checked, they made the dive. The primary insertion team began rappelling down through the elevator shaft to the chaos below.

"Team alpha in position." The lead Marine team reported as he checked the pair of elevator doors that lead to the ground floor. The sounds of chaos echoing outside. "Secure the building, LZ... right." A Marine private muttered to himself as he backed up two steps and attatched a shaped charge to the elevator doors.

"Fire in the hole!" he called out, and several men pulled up and out of the blast.

Inside the main foyer, a pair of elevator doors were blown asunder, the deafening explosion sent the metal panels outwards, clattering on the floor as a plume of smoke wafted out of the elevator doors.

"Contact!" The marine private shouted, rolling a flash-bang rolling into the main room. The grenade detonated in a brilliant white flash and deafening pop before three Aschen soldiers fanned out from the elevator and quickly took cover behind a row of chairs.

"We have natives and Xenos, engage the Xenos first and then clear out the Natives!" The Corporal shouted, taking cover behind a concrete pillar. "They're coming in from all sides; frak me!"

Several more men rapelled down the elevator and emerged from the doors, wearing theuniforms of the Aschen Empire.

"By the lords of Kobol! They're going to overrun these natives!" A Marine shouted from his position. "Antimana! Antimana! Gods damnit get some Antimana in here!" He called out, as more men came down through the elevator shaft. "They're going to break the lines, lay down some gods damned cover!"

Depending on how the men of the Stames corporation responded, the Aschen Soldiers would fortify their position quickly and efficiently, with a squad of Marines laying down cover fire.

These new forces appeared alien, but to those who knew of the Aschen Empire, would have cause to fear them. The first report of disruptor fire sent brilliant green bolts of energy out through the front windows and doors towards the assailing forces. The brilliant green bolts of light liquefied metal and scorched flesh as it impacted, erupting in plumes of vaporized fluids and carrying the stench of burning flesh.

The men staggered their fire, discharging their weapons at the approaching warriors with careful precision, as the weapons the Aschen carried were not capable of automatic fire, they staggered their fire to lay down a steady stream of covering fire. The room almost instantly thickening with the stench of Ozone.

"Gods damnit they're not stopping!" The Sergeant called out from behind his position, and so he detached a silver spherical antimana grenade from his belt, and hurled it towards the approaching golem.

The grenade detonated in an audible pop, and sent a powerful pulse of anti-magic in all directions. This had the very likely effect of Short circuiting active spells, and spelling a likely instantaneous death to magical based creatures. This anti-magic pulse also was capable of stripping active enchantments and rendering the area in a thirty meter radius devoid of magic.

Immediately following the Antimana grenade, several Aschen soldiers began concentrating their fire on the Golem, brilliant green disruptor bolts on course to impact the creature, hurling several hundreds of thousands of degrees of particle energy likely carving out superheated pockmarks on the strange metal of the creature, leaving white hot welts, and causing molten matetial to drip from it's form. Considering the output of an aschen disruptor rifle could liquefy even the strongest of metals upon impact, the soldiers hoped their weapons would be effective.

Daren and the group of 9 mercenaries with him didn't have to be told twice to move. The giant Golem was making short work of the front doors tot he foyer of the facility. Shattering glass, steel and other building materials in it's wake as it attempted to go after the fleeing humans. It could be said that he barely heard the explosion of the elevator doors if it wasn't for one of the chunks of steel to fly right at him. He raised and arm and knocked the massive broken slab of steel out of it's trajectory. Te armor did it's job deflecting the blow and energy.

Before him was a squad of some type of soldiers fanning out and trying to make sense of the situation unfolding before them. Timing was everything and these men were either unlucky or very luck depending on how one saw the glass of water. More fire erupted with Daren moving just behind the corridor that lead into the hallway past the foyer. So far he hadn't been shot at so he didn't shoot back. However, he watched- he watched to see what they would do. Their language was English which was fortunate. They seemed a little too organized and protocol in their language to be mercs like him. This was a state fighting force he could tel that much at least.

Green bolts fired from their weapons, something he's never seen before and didn't personally want to become acquainted with. What really interested him was the grenade they threw. It wasn't like anything he had ever seen or heard. "Julius are you recording this?" "Affirmative. The type of weaponry is unlike any known weapon from the Stames Corporation or any known military of Earth- likely suggestion. Extraterrestrial. The same as the hostile outside. This factor has complicated the battle stat algorithm, I'll be reapplying the data."

Seeing the Golem being weakened gave him an idea. Whatever they threw seemed to work on the giant slab of metal. Antimana they called it, Stames would want something like that once this whole thing is over. Daren an opportuniy, so he took it. Raising his weapon, he squeezed the trigger waiting for the intelligent firing system to charge his weapon to maximum capacity and would automatically fire when ready. The cavernous surroundings of the foyer, funneled the extremely loud blast and concussion of his Kinetic Acceleration Railgun aiming precisely where those green bolts have been landing the most in hopes that he could penetrate the weakened still. Also in hopes of making some new temporary friends, until he found a way out of this mess, preferably with some new equipment for his boss.

The Aschen could throw the antimana grenades all day long and it would do them no good against the Golem. It's Animation was tied to the Starsteel heart at it's core, the only way to reach which was to bore through the thickness of it's body, which absorbed the pulses and energy from their weapons without so much as a blemish upon it's surface. It would become quickly apparent that energy based weapons would have no effect against the Starsteel Construct.

The warriors on the other hand, were a different story. Their equipment was all forged from starsteel, but a lot of it's strength came from the constructs and enchantments they were forged with, and the Antimana grenades all but stripped those clean. This rendered their shields and helms and weapons to their base forms, without any spells or magic to reinforce them. That being said, the properties of Starsteel, namely that of it's ability to absorb copious amounts of energy without issue, made the shields ideal at blocking the energy based weaponry the Aschen used. The more physical components however were now a serious threat to their survival and as the shifting capacity of their equipment was tied to it's magical constructs, the shields could no longer be deployed to protect against the physical weapons used by the security. Realizing this only after watching several warriors get perforated by gunfire from the security forces and the mercenaries, several Fyrnskains began redirecting their forces, forming them back up into columns and ranks with their shields up. This would help keep them from harm as they continued their march. Once they had routed the enemy then they could deal with this new complication.

Although four of the Fyrnskain had reached an altogether quicker conclusion, in regards to dealing with the problem. As the Fyrnskain's armor derived the majority of it's defensive properties from it's thickness, the antimana grenades removing the enchantments would not do too much to negate the shields capabilities. The Fyrnskain didn't know this, however, all they knew was that the aschen soldiers posed a significantly higher threat than the others, and they immediately charged on them, swinging their axes in wide arcs to cut the marines down.

The Paladins on the contrasting side of things were severely affected by the antimana grenades. Their equipment relied almost entirely on magic to function, and with the pulse several of the paladins began plummeting to the ground as their flight capabilities were hindered. Thankfully the spells and constructs were more reinforced than those used with the legion Warriors, and so their capabilities were not entirely erased. Of greatest concern was their healing staves, which now saw a 45% decrease in effeciency. Still, some healing was better than none, especially now that it was clear the armor and shields of the warriors were not reliable enough on their own.

The Archers gained an absolute benafit from the antimana grenades. Their arrows only had one form of magic, and that was sealing magic. They used this to great effect, by firing arrows upon arrows at the Aschen soldiers. Any antimana used to negate spells only unleashed the sealed elements in the arrows. Thunderstorms, Molten Magma, Blizzards and Firebolts all contained by magic into the form of an arrow unleashed by the archers upon the enemy forces.

But then one of the enemy fired some sort of railgun at the Golem. That alone did more damage to it then anything else had, as the Golem was physically thrown back by the blast. It stumbled a couple steps before reengaging, moving towards the front door to break it down. Where the railguns fire had hit there was now a series of cracks, each a foot long in reach, spidering from the point of impact.

The fact that the antimana grenade seemed to have little effect on the golem brought the aschen marines who were stacked behind cover some pause. The anti-magic pulse fired outwards in all direction yet the massive metallic creature kept advancing on them.

"They're still coming!" One of the marines shouted as he tried to lay down covering fire. The disruptor bolts careened through the air, impacting the starsteel armor to no effect.

The marine sergeant quickly gestured to his radioman as the Fyrnskains moved in on their forward positions, swinging their axes the men raised their rifles to catch the blades mid swing, they moved from cover to get away from the axe wielding creatures as the signal was sent up to the team on the roof.

The corporal on the roof listened silently to the panicked radioman on the ground floor, he turned towards the lieutenant and spoke. "They're getting chewed up ground side, they're requesting adepts and air support." The corporal said as the lieutenant offered a nod.

"Krypter, krypter, krypter; requesting air and adept support at primary infil LZ." The radioman hailed into his subspace comms relay, at that moment a voice crackled over the airwaves and a response came.

"This is Security Chief Valaj, I've got two apollos on the Tarmac, fueled and ready to go, have your boys call in the coordinates and we'll light them up."


Back on the ground, as the situation began to go tits up for the aschen forces, their English orders quickly descended into shouts in what sounded like ancient or Medieval Latin, the Anquietas language which was native for the Aschen people.


In the Tech Con quarter, a pair of F-11x Apollo fighters were being prepped and readied to go, using their powerful VTOL engines they dusted off the Tarmac and ascended into the air, the pilots checked their gear, and then they checked the two 1,500 pound JDAM ordinance mounted to the bottoms of their wings. As the fighters lifted off, they kicked on their afterburners. Someone amid the chaos in the lobby managed to get out a coherent set of coordinates into his radio, and the amassed forces outside would be in for quite a show.

The pair of Tech Con apollos banked hard towards the omnicorp HQ; their engines shrieking through the streets of wing city as they banked hard, the approaching formations of alien forces filled the streets, and with a deafening roar. The pair of delta shaped aircraft darted overhead, releasing their munitions onto the road directly in front of the Omnicorp Building. The guided munitions moved towards the tightest concentration of troops, before detonating in a powerful concussive blast capable of liquefying the men in their armor, it also sent white hot shrapnel in all directions. The 1,500 pound bombs were capable of reducing even fortified buildings to rubble. However they could not target the golem given its position in the lobby of the building.

Inside the aschen marines were switching to melee combat, but without their ranged weapons their effectiveness was drastically reduced.

Above the omnicorp building the storm suddenly began to return, clouds gathering and churning with multicolored lightning; the vortex slammed down, cracking the concrete on the landing pad as the vortex made contact.

Several flashes of multicolored light followed, and the hulking power armored forms of the Adepts of War emerged from the vortex.

Their armor whirred and the shields flashed to life as one of them growled.

"Git some." He grinned as he gestured to his team leader, and then chambered a 20mm heavy magnetron round into his rifle.

The bifrost vortex belched out several more war adepts, two of them carrying 120mm fuel rod cannons, heavy weapons capable of hurling a solid slug of plutonium at hyper-velocities. The Adepts checked their weapons before they jumped clean off the roof, their inertial dampeners and jump jets kicking in as they began to land piecemeal amidst the advancing warriors.

The adepts landed with a massive crash, sending a concussive shockwave out in all directions; they checked their weapons once more and began to open fire, hurling explosive 20mm magnetically accelerated slugs, which detonated a split second after impact out in all directions, while incoming melee attacks seemed to hardly scratch the reinforced duralthene armor plating.

One of the adepts grinned at the hulking golem and growled

"I have come to destroy you." He said before he set his heavy magnetron to full auto, and unleashed a fusillade of heavy slugs at the golem's back, each tungsten carbide tipped slug hurling towards it at hypersonic velocities, leaving a trail of combustion in its wake.

Several other adepts engaged in melee combat, with one picking up a car and tossing it at a formation of warriors with ease, while another uprooted a light post and began using it as a large bat, swinging in wide swathes at the enemy, hoping to draw them away from the boxed in marine formation.

"Shit yeah! Second times the charm!" Daren readied for a second salvo but the a few hulking masses of armored warriors distracted him for the barest of moments. The marines to his right were fully engaged in combat,the men his own size taking on 7 foot tall giants wielding hammers and axes. It didn't look like the marines were going to get out of this alive and in short time. Despite the damage the golem had taken it was still charging, he could see the cracks in it's chest as it decimated the front doors to the foyer. From his perspective, the scene outside was full scale war. Unrestrained bolts of fire, ice, lava, plasma and god knows what else had begun to rain down from the archers that he couldn't see outside. But a few arrow heads in his direction made Daren break from the wall.

"Right... Now's as good a time as ever." Daren turned and full on sprinted down the hallway deeper into the building, leaving this battle scene behind him. He wasn't going to fight this, it wasn't his place and he had no back-up the money paying him to stay put. "Julian, give me the locations of the team." "Communications are still being jammed from the extra-terrestrial jammer on top of the building. I can trace all Stames Corp operatives but communication is futile until-" "Just tell me where they are so I can find'em!" Glancing over his shoulder Daren rounded down a hallway fully committing on leaving the site. Leaving the marines to fend for themselves, and just in time from how it sounded beyond out in the courtyard.

Relatively pissed off that his opportunity to nab any tech was ruined, he kept his eyes open for anything else as he made his way through this hallway and that. The interior of the administrative building was abandoned, trolleys with documents left in random locations. Service bots either shut down or still running on their primary functions waiting on the staff to initiate a new objective.

Daren paused in a stair well and decided to head up, now on the southern side of the building. "Julian, get me a schematic of the building.... I want to find the R&D section, I've got time." "By my calculations, the time of which you speak of is negligible. In the interest of preserving Stames Defense-" "Well if you continue to stall me, I AM gonna round out of time now aren't I? Help me out." Daren pounded up past the 4th floor of the building finding that this was purely the human resources division. He paused for a moment and swapped weapon to draw his pistol. In a flash he did a magazine change, aiming the large caliber weapon to a wall several floors up and fired.

A surprisingly quiet gunshot rang out from the pistol, negligible hopefully from the chaos outside. He'd fired a deep resonance sonar pulse scanner, as a means of finding anything of interesting withing the surrounding area be they person, hollow and weak points in a structure of any other items with unique sonic qualities. Within several hundred meters, sonar pulses were reverberated and echoed back through the building to the device which painted Daren a 3-D picture of his surrounding. With the new ability to see through walls and even determine the composite of the materials around him, Daren wouldn't be surprised by anything around him if it was caught in the silent sonar pulses.

"Julius-?" "Proceed up 16 stories, and you'll be on the multi floor level of OmniCopr Research and Development." "Now let's hope they ran out of time to purge all their shit." Daren started up the stairs once more, thanking god that he wore this armor. It was far from quiet, but the servos saved him from muscle fatigue although he was beginning to get winded.

The Fyrnskain continued their assault on the normal marines, while the remainder began a charge on the adepts. They were bred for war and combat, but they were not fools. The Golem was the only thing maintaining their advantage and if they lost it to these armored brutes then the battle would quickly turn against them.

Two more archers were sent to retreat and make a report, while the remaining five began circling the building, avoiding the Adepts and the gunfire. They then proceeded to climb the building, making use of their training and specialized tools given to them specifically for this task. Their captain knew now that there was something at the roof of the building that was bringing soldiers in, and he intended to have it obliterated.

The Golem sustained heavy fire from the Adepts weaponry, each blast sounding a clear bell like note as it struck the starsteel body. Cracks began to form in it's back and everywhere where it sustained continuous fire. A pair of paladins were trying to stay close to it, their staves releasing continuous streams of energy, mending some of the cracks, but not nearly fast enough for their liking. Meanwhile the Golem slammed it's fists into the ground, unleashing shockwaves that would send any unprepared to their knees.

One thing the Fyrnskains would likely quickly realize, was that the dense, heavy armor of the war adepts seemed to be all but impervious to their melee attacks, axes caught reinforced alloy plating and ricocheted off the armored hulks in a shower of sparks, while energy shields flared violently against magical attacks. The integrated antimana within the Adept shield systems dissipating the magical effects of the arrows with little detriment to the Adepts themselves. These hulking men were made for war, with every aspect of their form being overkill. From the massive 20mm depleted uranium tungsten carbide tipped slugs that soared from the muzzles of their weapons at a whopping 5,500 meters per second. The massive slugs were capable of piercing the densest of armor. Before delivering an eviscerating explosion by detonating a split second after penetration.

One adept looked up to the Paladins in the air, and noticed that they were healing the enemy troops, the Captain of the adept squad signaled a shift in priority targets, and four of the Adepts of war raised their weapons up at the flying Paladins.


Their weapons thundered to life, sending their ordinance upwards. Targeting assist in their armor aided their aim so it would likely strike true. The massive slugs sailing towards center mass of each airborne paladin. Should this round strike it was likely the sheer velocity of the slug would cut through the armor and detonate leaving the paladin little more than bloody giblets.

As the golem smashed the ground, the shockwave went out in every direction. It sent the meager armored marines hurling back, but the shockwave washed harmlessly over the adepts shields in a flash of white, the energy of the shockwave dissipated around the adept, much like how a stream moves around the stone.

Upon the roof, the Marine lieutenant was listening to the radio chatter, one of the Corporals turning to face his superior.

"The battle is turning in our favor."

The lieutenant nodded before he keyed up the radio, his eyes on the pair of adepts that stayed on the roof to stand watch.

"Attention native mercenary force; if you can read me, I am Lieutenant Kalfas of the Aschen Empires SOLCOM task force, I'm in need of your services and you will be compensated handsomely, proceed immediately to the roof for assignment." The lieutenant said, hoping his message got out.

What the Adepts would quickly learn was that the Fyrnskain were also made for war, their axes forged to cleave through the cores of the stars themselves. And what the weapons could not do, the warrior within would handle just fine. Several Fyrnskain ran straight to the adepts and began physically wrestling with them, attempting to pry their weapons from them, to strike them on the helm, to batter them down. To each adept it would feel as though every punch throne and every strike against them was a meteor hurtling into their bodies at near the speed of light.

As weapons fire targeted the paladins, it would rebound of a barrier that surrounded their form. That attack was the only one the adepts would find easy, as the paladins immediately retreated behind the safety of the legion warriors and their shields.

One Fyrnskain, the field commander of the whole group, had come to the conclusion that the battle was lost. He began signalling the Golem, who responded by attacking the walls and supporting structure of the head quarters. If they could not capture the facility, then they would render it down into rubble. Each strike breaking more and more of the supporting substructure, and sending shudders through the building.

The Archers who had scaled the side of the building reached the rooftop, and covertly took positions to avoid detection. They scouted the enemies gateway and fortifications with concern. One archer signaled another, and that archer took a running leap off the buildings edge, before pulling a structure from a pouch on his belt. This structure then unfolded into a compact glider, allowing the archer to safely glide away towards the business district proper. The Remaining four archers continued to watch from stealth, careful to remain undetected by the enemy.